ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
After nearly 20 years of S80.2 goodness, a few years ago I picked up a pair of MS150.2s. Driven by a tube amp, the clarity and accuracy of sound is quite astounding, though obviously not as punchy as the speakers can manage, given the tube amp output. I'd be very curious to listen to them via an 8000 as intended. Anyway, I noticed recently one speaker was a little off, and a close listen revealed a dead midrange.
I have a pair of "parts" S120s, so went out and bought caps, recapped the damaged MS150.2 (hoping for a pre and post cap comparison with the other one), and excitedly went to remove the parts midrange only to find they are different. The original was open circuit and splitting it, I found the voice coil had fallen off and, in one place, broke.
I am having difficulty in finding a replacement. It is a SEAS H287, I believe, used in S80.2, MC120, and perhaps others.
Any leads would be much appreciated
Unfortunately this seems a common problem - one of the midranges on my MS150.2s started making odd noises a couple of years back and it turned out that my voice coil had fallen off the former, too.
Luckily at the time I was able to buy a replacement from Martin's Beoparts website. Now my second midrange is making ominous noises and I'm not sure I'll be so lucky again.
Maybe we should go halves on a scrap pair of speakers with good midrange drivers if either of us finds some!
I hope you didn't throw the faulty midrange drivers away. There should be some specialty speaker repair shops that can rebuild them.
Upon purchase (sight unseen), the good speaker had an occasional rattle in the mid range, which I chose to ignore. Now that I know what it is, when I pull it apart to recap, I'll glue down the coil as well.
A set of parts S80s appeared on ebay last week, and went for about $50 - what a shame they aren't the same mid ranges!
The thought of repair did occur to me, but it is also the fact of that which has prevented me from having a go myself. I have managed to locate the break in the coil, and slip the coil back onto the dome. Would a repairer bridge the break, or rewind it?
Can you post pictures of what you are describing?
I had a similar break on the midrange of one of my MS150 speakers. That midrange is slightly different in its assembly though. You can see my break and repair here (about a third of the way down the page). However, the wiring on your coil looks kind of loose. If you were to re-wire it I would recommend having a professional speaker shop do it.
Yes, the break in yours seemed to be in a place much easier to deal with. Were you able to solder directly onto the winding or did you have to strip off the red coating? When I split it (having found it to be open circuit, so what is there to lose?), the coil was hanging off. I eased it back on loosely while I tried to find the other end of the broken wire. I don't know how essential that the loops are in perfect alignment.
I carefully stripped off some of the insulation where I did the soldering. The solder joint didn't turn out as clean as I wanted but it has held and worked fine for several years now. I think the wire symmetry would be important but I'm not expert in speaker coils. That's why I would suggest using a professional speaker repair shop for this.
If these speakers were readily available then it might be fun to try a repair yourself. Unfortunately these are no longer made so you have to be more careful.
I took the speaker in to a repairer who said there was no hope. I asked him to solder it up anyway and that I'd have a go gluing down the coil. It works, but rubs.
I am thinking of broadening the search - do you know what the specs are for the H287? Max power handling, range, etc?
Thank you.
I had the same with my M100's where the filler driver rattled - I took it to a repairer in Norfolk and they were very good, although it did take some time - but whatever you do don't through it away. Like you I was astounded when I switched from a Beomaster 6500 diriving them to a tube amp - now they are driven by a BM4400 as I found having no control over the bass to be a problem - they sounds amazing now, so I imagine a BM8000 on yours would also sound brilliant.
It may have been this company http://www.audioloudspeakers.co.uk/aboutus.shtml
Interesting - so are you saying the 4400 sounds better than a 6500? What tube amp were you running - were you getting enough volume and bass?
I'm running the MS150s with a tube amp I bought new in Hong Kong some years back - all of $120 worth. It really does sound fantastic other than a lack of bass, which is something I'd like to address. I have tried various solid state amplifiers and the sound overall just doesn't sound close to the chinese tube amp.
Hi - I can't remember the make of the tube amp, but it was Chinese and very substantial - the bass was amazingly deep - a bit too deep though as I have wooden floors and you could feel the bass in the other rooms. It output 40watts which is plenty. The bass was too much hence moving back to a B&O amp where I can control it. The 6500 I always sounded slightly wooly, not bad sound but not full and engaging. The 4400 to my ears anyway is much just so much better. The other problem I had was humm from the turntable as I tried several different preamps, with the 4400 there isn't any and the 4400 also has tape inout and outputs whereas the tube amp didn't.